Numerous technologies are currently utilized to treat seeds with the desired purpose of enhancing crop performance. These treatments include inter alia the coating, pelleting and/or film overcoating of seeds. A range of fungicide treatments as dusts, liquids and slurries have long been used to control soil and seed-borne diseases in vegetable seeds. However, the use of insecticides for vegetable seed treatment has lagged behind that of fungicide seed treatments, and moreover, seed treatment of agronomic crops is even less advanced than that for vegetable seed.
Recent developments in seed treatment technology have focused on the use of techniques to deliver pesticides to seeds. Film-coating has been studied as a means of delivering insecticides such as benfuracarb, chlorpyrifos, chlorfenvinphos and others. In the past, the concentration of these insecticides and other active ingredients present in the seed coating was limited due to direct phytotoxic effect of the insecticide on the seed. Using the instant seed coating of the present invention solves the problem of direct insecticide phytotoxicity to the seed.